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left handright handthumb · behindT½123456½7½bellleft handright handthumb · behindT½123456½7½bell
C4sounds C5Thumb on

Baroque (English): F is a fork. On the recorder, hole 5 is bigger than hole 4.

SongsJolly Old Saint Nicholas
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2 more songs need notes this instrument does not have. Changing the size or key brings some of them into reach.

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American, 19th century; the music was first published in 1874. Public domain.

27 notes · C4–D6 written · sounds C5–D7 · 27 notes · The descant: the recorder in every school bag. In C, and it sounds an octave above its written part.

Tap a note, or slide along them to slur from note to note in one breath. On a keyboard the letters on the notes are the ones to press — Q is the bottom note and they climb a semitone at a time.

RecorderFree · printable · plays in your browser

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas — Recorder Notes

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, written out for the recorder as letter notes with the fingering drawn under each one and set up above on the Soprano. Press Play to hear it, Practice to learn it one note at a time — the recorder waits for you — or Play along to keep time with it.

  • Notes48, 6 pitches
  • RangeG4–E5
  • Key hereC major
  • Tempo100 bpm · about 19 s
  • LevelEasy

Can a recorder play Jolly Old Saint Nicholas?

Yes — every one on this page plays it. The check is made note by note against what each one can actually sound. Where the tune does not fit as the library writes it, another key or octave is tried, and the table says which; where nothing fits, it names the notes that are missing.

  • Soprano✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G4–E5 · loaded above
  • Alto✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G5–E6 · load it
  • Tenor✓ Plays as writtenIn C major, G4–E5 · load it

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas: recorder notes

The large line is the note, and the drawing is its fingering — a filled hole or key is one that is down. A dash holds the note another beat, an underline is half a beat, and a dot beside a note makes it half as long again. Each line is one phrase.

▶ Play it above

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas — recorder notes (Soprano) · tonalics.com

The 6 notes it uses

Lowest to highest, with how many times each is played. Learn these 6 and you can play the whole tune.

  • GG4×4
  • AA4×8
  • BB4×1
  • CC5×13
  • DD5×10
  • EE5×12

What to expect on a recorder

  • It runs from G4 to E5, a major sixth, using 6 different notes. That leaves 7 semitones unused below and 10 above.
  • 85% of its moves are a step or a repeated note. The widest is a fifth, E5 to A4, at note 13.
  • E5 needs the pinched thumb, the half-covered thumb hole that gives the upper octave.

About the tune

An American children’s song whose words appeared as a poem in the 1860s. The music was first published in 1874 and is generally attributed to James R. Murray, the composer of the “Mueller” tune for Away in a Manger.

American, 19th century; the music was first published in 1874. Public domain. The notes follow Douglas D. Anderson, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas (sequence released to the public domain), cross-checked against 2 other transcriptions. More about Jolly Old Saint Nicholas →

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas on other instruments

The same melody, in each instrument’s own notation. It is not offered for the guzheng or handpan, which do not have the notes.

More songs for the recorder

All 36 recorder songs · Christmas songs for recorder · The online recorder on its own

Playing it on a real recorder?

If it sounds wrong, check the instrument before the notes. The recorder tuner listens through your microphone and names what each note is actually sounding.

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